We have one son who graduated from MIT with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry after a total of nine years of college. We have another son who graduated from WyoTech with degrees in Automotive Technology and Management after a two-year program right after high school. After five years at their respective jobs, which both thoroughly employ their respective educations, guess which one makes more money? Trade school wins.

Bronwyn Clear

Proud parents, I bet.(I suspect the income lines will cross at the 10 year or 20 year mark, but there's no guarantee, I suspect. Also, it depends on whether the MIT son became an academic.)

llinois manufacturers need about 27,000 workers a year, for the next five years, just to keep up with retirements. The only problem is, there aren't 30,000 workers with the skills to fill the jobs.

"Manufacturers need 22,000 production workers and 5,000 engineers every year, for the next five years between now and 2027 just to cover retirements of the baby boomers," Jim Nelson of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association said. "So there are jobs available."

Nelson said there's a need for truck drivers, welders, craftsmen, manufacturers, supervisors, and a whole lot of other workers....

...But not enough of the workers who are available in Illinois have the skills that employers need. The biggest reason for that, Nelson said, is that Illinois high schools are still focused on sending kids to college.

Maybe Mr. Nelson is using a very broad definition of an engineer, but 5,000 a year? Really?

There are a couple of ways to look at this: first, does that number make sense from a generation perspective? The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the state of Illinois employs 90,510 people in the architecture and engineering occupations (which includes engineering technicians.) Does it make sense that they have to replace a quarter of this workforce in the next 5 years? (or the next ten?) I think that number seems at least a little bit inflated, or perhaps the Illinois manufacturing workforce is older than I understand. Could go one way or another, it seems.

Secondly, let's think about whether or not that is even possible to replace this number of engineers. The University of Illinois (a very fine engineering school) has 9145 undergraduates, which suggests that it graduates ~2300 engineers a year. Not enough for Mr. Nelson. There are, of course, other very fine engineering schools in the Land of Lincoln, but let's just reach over into the Crossroads of America and steal some Purdue engineering graduates. The undergraduate enrollment of the Purdue College of Engineering is 12,477 undergraduates, or ~3100 graduates a year.

So if every single engineering graduate of both Illinois and Purdue decide to turn down the temptations of Silicon Valley or the depredations of the coasts to stay in the Midwest, maaayyybbe Illinois manufacturing will be okay.(looks like wages for engineers in Illinois will be going up? I hope?)

We are hoping to start a "CJ's mailbag" for my column at Chemical and Engineering News. Please feel free to write me (chemjobber@gmail.com) if you have a career-oriented dilemma that you'd like me to write about in the magazine. Also, you can submit your questions with this handy web form. Thanks!

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Though American laboratories stopped producing nerve agents around 1970, after the production of so-called third-generation nerve agents like sarin and VX, Soviet scientists continued their work for two decades, producing a “fourth generation.”

The Novichok nerve agents came in solid form, like a powder or thick paste, and would not register on the chemical detector paper that NATO troops used.

A chemist who worked in the laboratory developing Novichok accidentally inhaled fumes while filling a syringe, and collapsed. Though he was injected with an antidote and eventually awoke, he suffered from depression and epilepsy and died five years later, leaving Vil Mirzayanov, a scientist who helped develop the agent, deeply disillusioned.

“Antidotes exist, but what does antidote mean?” Mr. Mirzayanov, who had leaked the project to the press and later immigrated to the United States, told Sky News on Tuesday. “You’re saving a person who has been exposed to this gas — but temporarily, not to die this time. But he will be an invalid for the rest of his life.”

Evonik Industries declared victory for its exclusive synthesis division late last year when it announced the renewal of a long-term supply contract with Eli Lilly & Co. The German firm bought Lilly’s TippecanoeLaboratories in Lafayette, Ind., in 2010 and had been supplying the drug company with active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)....

...The repurposing of the Tippecanoe site was largely accomplished under the direction of general manager Clive Whiteside. Whiteside, who started his career at ICI, describes the cultural conversion as a protracted effort. But he emphasizes that one element of culture has remained constant at Tippecanoe—a midwestern work ethic.

“One of the things that helped us be successful—that we inherited from our previous owner—is a high-quality workforce with know-how and commitment,” Whiteside says. “America’s Midwest breeds hardworking people who are good at working together. And that is a huge advantage for a service company.”

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

One of my work duties is to give safety training on the principles of electrostatic safety; ESD training we call it. The group of people who go through my training are new employees. These folks come from all walks of life with education ranging from high school/GED to BS chemists & engineers to PhD chemists. In order to be compliant with OSHA and with what we understand to be best practices, we give personnel who will be working with chemicals extensive training in all of the customary environmental, health and safety areas.

I have instructed perhaps 80 to 100 people in the last 6 years. At the beginning of each session I query the group for their backgrounds and ask if it includes any electricity or electronics study or hobbies. With the exception of two electricians in the group, this survey has turned up a resounding zero positive responses.

Admittedly, there could be some selection bias here. It could be that people with electrical knowledge do not end up in the chemical industry. This agrees with my informal observations. But I’m not referring to experts in the electrical field. I refer to people who recall having ever heard of Ohm’s law. One might have guessed that the science requirements for high school graduation may have included rudimentary electrical concepts. One might have further suspected that hobby electronics could have occupied the earlier years of a few attendees. Evidently not. And it does not appear that parents have been very influential in this matter either...

I messed around a lot with electronics when I was a pre-teen, had a lot of fun with electronics kits. (Incidentally, Snap Circuits are a pretty cool educational tool for kids.)

1. Your firm failed to ensure that laboratory records included complete data derived from all tests necessary to assure compliance with established specifications and standards (21 CFR 211.194(a)).Your firm lacks basic laboratory controls to prevent changes to paper and electronic records for your over-the-counter (OTC) drug products. You were not able to provide analytical test data for three batches of [redacted] spray and one batch of [redacted]. We found that you created certificates of analysis (COA) for these four batches before they were manufactured and tested.

When questioned, your firm acknowledged falsifying the analytical test results on the COA you used to support release and distribution of [redacted] spray and [redacted] drug products to the United States.

In addition, we found three electronic data files in the electronic recycle bin of the stand-alone HPLC system you used to test finished drug product [redacted] spray. Because this instrument lacks back-up and audit trail capabilities, we could not determine how frequently test data obtained prior to “official” batch testing was discarded. You were unable to explain why these electronic files were deleted.